Dead on Arrival

"Dammit, Hayner!" Seifer's fist wrenched out to the side, slamming into the wall beside the blond's head and causing a sliver of fear to ricochet through the shorter boy's body.

"Don't you understand?" The gang leader's voice was an angry hiss, laced with such desperation and a need to be understood that Hayner nearly agreed with Seifer just to wipe that fearful look from lacing through Seifer's scarred face. Instead, however, he moved to voice a protest to Seifer's outburst but was cut off when he felt his shoulders grabbed and his body furiously shaken.

"They could kill you. They would take your body and destroy it and leave you to die in the streets." The shaking stopped and a calloused hand rose to thumb at the gash on Hayner's cheek in a near-caress over the scabbed injury. He winced, drawing back from the larger boy's searching gaze and averting his eyes.

"Is that what it means to be with you? Fear for my life?" Hayner regretted the words the very second they left his mouth. Seifer's anger and fear seemed to leak from him in an instant- replaced with resignation. The hands that had been touching him so diligently withdrew. Seifer looked away, his lips pursing into a thin line, shoulders tense.

"If you can't handle the danger of being with me, then leave."

The clarity of the situation struck Hayner, and if he could, he would have taken a step backwards from the reality tat he was suddenly forced to come face-to-face with.

"Leave?" The word escaped him like a punch to the stomach, leaving the blond teen with a sudden inability to breathe. Seifer turned away from him.

"Leave. You'd be safer, less hassle on my conscious instead of having to worry about some coward who can't even hold his own in red running." Seifer began to walk away, and Hayner was compelled to stop him - if he didn't, he'd lose his chance - and ran forward, body slamming into Seifer's back and his arms encompassing that strong torso that always has his knees going weak.

He buried his face into Seifer's back, breathing in the older boy's scent. "I don't want to leave. I don't care if they try to kill me, or if you turn into a bigger asshole than you already are, I'm not leaving. I'll get better, I'll win the next game, st-stupid jackass!" His words hiccuped over themselves near the end, and Hayner tried to stop the wobble in his lower lip that came with his declaration.

Seifer breathed in deeply, turning in Hayner's arms and pulling the shorter boy into an embrace and allowing Hayner's forehead to thud against his collarbone. His hands rested gently on the blond teen's shoulders. "You're such a baby."


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Dead on Arrival is a fic I have in mind about Seifer, Hayner, thugs, street fights, gangs, and free-running.

e__e
blame *kitten-chan for the art that inspired it.